Pupils in Wokingham can speak with local employees and employers at an event allowing them to give greater thought to their futures next month.

Youngsters who will be sitting down to begin their GCSE studies next year are heading over to Loddon Valley Leisure Centre in Lower Earley on Wednesday, October 6, for the Wokingham Schools Career Fair.

It is hoped the event can provide schoolchildren with the opportunity to learn more about the careers available to them once they have completed compulsory education and select the GCSE and A-level subjects which can allow them to follow such a career path.

Organised by the Wokingham Business, Skills and Enterprise Partnership, in conjunction with The Wokingham Federation of Secondary Schools and Central Berkshire Education Business Partnership, the event will run for Year Nine pupils from 9am to 2.45pm.

Then, from 4pm to 8pm, the fair will be open to young people of all ages from across the borough and their parents.

Attending the event will be representatives from a variety of skills sectors, which include IT, finance, health, hospitality, creative and media, construction, science, business, administration and public services.

And representing these sectors will be staff from employers such as Visa, HSBC, Foster Wheeler, Deloitte, Kier and Reading retail centre The Oracle.

Guests from training, further education and university providers will also be on hand to speak and advise visitors about the routes they need to take in order to realise their ambitions.

Richard Stanley, head of learning and achievement at Wokingham Borough Council, said: “The day is a fantastic opportunity for young people aged 14 to 19 years to take advantage of a wealth of expertise to assist them in making informed decisions about their futures and the qualifications they need to achieve.”

Among those who will be at the event is Mark Ashwell, who is proprietor of TradeMark Windows in Fishponds Lane.

However, he will be there in his position as chairman of the Wokingham Chamber of Commerce.

He told The Wokingham Times how the fair is a good opportunity to get the pupils thinking about a potential career sooner, rather than later.

“This way we can start setting out a road map for the youth of today who understand where potential is for a career,” he said.

“[The fair] is quite a cutting edge initiative.

“It shows forward thinking because we are talking about Year Nine pupils and not the employees of tomorrow, which is a sort of investment for the future, and not a lot of other areas are doing this at the moment, which makes it unique.

“It is also a good interaction between big and small companies locally.

“What it is trying to do is get pupils to have the subjects in place that match the requirements for employment.

“It is quite all right for someone to go out and get a pet grooming qualification – but maybe we don’t need pet groomers and you might not see that at a careers fair.

“It is about advising people to choose the subjects which match the careers they want to have.”